I don't subscribe to common western black and white views on US vs Chinese freedom, and in fact I am fairly paranoid about the US government overreach of power, however I don't see that Chinese-style internet censorship has any applicability to the US or European governments.
I'm far more concerned about the power exterted by increasingly large corporations who want extract as much rent from the network as possible. I'm also more concerned about covert government surveillance. But in terms of outright censorship, that will just piss off too many people for little gain. There's no competitive advantage to be gained the way there is for China.
Anecdote: On Omegle a while ago, I chat with a Chinese girl, all Chinese guys I met there were always anxious about how other people would see their country, so I proceed to explain that I grew up very fond of many things about China, martial arts, silk clothes, temples, food, pictural art, kanjis. The girl listens happily and then tells me 'you know, not everything in China is good, <this> <that> <this> ... ' Then 3 seconds blank. Then 'oh god .. god ... no' then left asking me to forget what she said, that her country is great and she loves it very much. Then quit.
I guess she was worried her messages would be logged and have consequences.
Could be, but I spent a huge amount of time on Omegle, stats from 10K conversations, and that kind of troll was almost non existant. American teens trying to spot sex seekers (to leverage in positive or negative ways) = 70% of the users over a 9 month period. The rest were mostly bored cubicle workers. Chinese users had recurrent pattern: struggling to type, low english level, similar center of interests. That girl was very similar (except for the english level). Maybe you're right but it didn't feel like this at the time.
I don't subscribe to common western black and white views on US vs Chinese freedom
It's maybe, black and dark gray. US media and US spin interests can corruptly manipulate a lot. But I don't see how that sort of power makes the blunt repression of China any better.
I'm far more concerned about the power exterted by increasingly large corporations who want extract as much rent from the network as possible. I'm also more concerned about covert government surveillance. But in terms of outright censorship, that will just piss off too many people for little gain. There's no competitive advantage to be gained the way there is for China.